Relationship entanglements must solve as quickly as possible. The longer it dragged on, the more dangerous it will be for Rachel.
Rachel followed behind Ewan. She pushed open the door of the ancestral hall. It was so dark inside that she couldn’t see anything.
Even the lights of the moon couldn’t penetrate the ancestral hall. There was only darkness.
Ewan was brave enough to march in, but Rachel was too scared that her legs shivered. There were sweats on her forehead as well as her palm.
Ewan took out his phone and turned on the flashlight, “Rachel, there’s no need to be afraid.”
“Ewan…” Rachel could hardly breathe. Her fears shown, no matter how hard she tried to suppress them.
At the same time, a loud voice raised, “Who’s there?”
Rachel got startled, and she squeezed herself into Ewan’s arms. She hugged him tightly, and her whole body shivered.
Ewan paused for a second and adjusted his flashlight to the direction where the voice came.
The next second, the lights of the ancestral hall turned on.
Ewan squinted his eyes and used one of his arms to block out some of the lights. His other arm was hugging Rachel, who got startled. Rachel’s shoulder was still shivering. She got really freaked out.
When Ewan’s eyes got used to the lights in the hall, he looked over.
The ancestral hall was still the way it was – solemn and holy, and there wasn’t anything to be afraid.
Bishop, the caretaker of the North Garden, was standing at the side of the hall. He was a sixty-years-old man.
Bishop had a sleepy face. It looked like he had just woken up from sleep. He was surprised too when he saw Ewan and the woman in his arm, “Master Ewan, why are you here? And this is…”
Rachel slowly recovered from her frightened state as the lights turned on, and she heard a familiar voice. She pulled herself away from Ewan’s arms and greeted Bishop, “Hi, Bishop.”
“Miss Rachel,” Bishop looked at Rachel with a confused face, then he turned to Ewan and asked in a surprised tone, “It’s already 2 o’clock in the morning, and you are both in the ancestral hall instead of your bed. Is there anything you need here?”
Ewan stared at Bishop with a piercing looked. Unless Bishop was the best actor award winner of the Academy Award, or else he wouldn’t have put up an act so well.
Ewan didn’t answer Bishop’s question. Instead, he threw in another one for Bishop, “Bishop, what are you doing here then?”
“I came to the prayer session with them.”
“Who?” Ewan slowly approached Bishop. His straight face brought out the fear in Bishop.
Bishop got panicked. He thought he did something wrong, so he quickly explained himself, “It’s been officially a month after Ms. Eve’s passing. Old Master Hill and Master Charles’s family came here to pay their respect and held a prayer session, so they are spending the night here.”
Rachel didn’t understand how the ritual works, but she knew some people practised it.
Ewan looked around, and he saw there were offerings on the table.
Bishop continued, “Old Master Hill and Master Charles were all asleep in the rooms behind. Miss Eliza couldn’t spend the night here, so she went back earlier.”
“I see.” Ewan took a look around the place, but he didn’t find anything suspicious. It was just like what Bishop said- after the prayer session, Eliza went back to the North Garden.
Bishop carefully asked, “Master Ewan, may I know what makes you come to the ancestral hall this late? Do you need anything?”
“Don’t wake grandpa and Uncle Charles up. I was looking for something,” Ewan walked towards Rachel, held her hand and headed straight to the backyard.
Bishop quickly followed Ewan, “Master Ewan, what are you looking for?”
“You can go back to bed now. You have no business here now.” Ewan tried to get rid of Bishop.
But Bishop was worried, so he followed them to the backyard.
Rachel was stunned the moment she saw the scenery of the backyard. She left the Hill Manor when she was fifteen. It has already been ten years since.
The backyard was no longer like how she remembered it.
Ewan walked around. Under the yellow streetlight, he could roughly see the wall of the backyard. There weren’t any bamboo groves nor rockeries.
There weren’t even any flowers or trees. It was just empty land and a tall white wall.
“Ewan, it’s different now.” Rachel said in a calm tone.
Ewan nodded. He too realized that the backyard looked different than it used to be when they were younger.
“Yes, it has changed. That place?”
Rachel pointed out that the south direction, “I think it was somewhere there. That place used to have bamboo groves, and rockeries were blocking the wall.”
Ewan let go of Rachel’s hand and slowly walked toward the south direction.
Bishop approached Rachel and asked softly, “Miss Rachel, what are you looking for?”
Rachel put up an embarrassed smile and answered, “I… I was looking for… a… a bird! Yes, a bird!”
“A bird?” Bishop scratched his head, doubtful expression showed on his face.
Rachel continued smiling while she explained, “Ewan’s bird flew away. We saw it flew right into the ancestral hall and straight to the backyard. That’s why we came here looking for it.”
Ewan, who was knocking on the wall looking for clues, heard what Rachel told Bishop. He almost burst into laughter, but he had to hold it in and go with her story.
What an excuse.
Did she think Bishop was dumb?
Bishop laughed and asked, “So Miss Rachel was playing with Master Ewan’s bird at 2 in the morning. It flew away, so you and Master Ewan was chasing after it to the ancestral hall?”
Rachel was speechless.
And she was sweating.
It seems like she really didn’t know how to make up stories.
This story Rachel made up made her doubted her intelligence.
She looked at Ewan and asked for help. Ewan had checked through the place, but he found nothing, so he turned around.
Ewan approached Bishop, took out his wallet and handed a stack of money to Bishop.
Bishop was curious, but the stack of cash made him excited. He nervously asked, “Master Ewan, I don’t understand…”
Ewan smiled and lowered his voice, “Bishop, you haven’t seen anything and will not spread anything about tonight.”
Bishop wanted to take the money, but his curiosity told him that something wasn’t right, “Master Ewan, I still don’t understand.”
Ewan raised his brow and approached closer to Bishop, then whispered in his ears.
Bishop smiled after hearing what Ewan said in his ears. He quickly took the money from Ewan and put them in his pocket. He then said craftily, “I understand now. I will never mention a word to anyone.”
Rachel looked at Ewan in a surprised look. She was curious about what Ewan told Bishop exactly to make Bishop promised not to tell anyone.
Ewan thanked Bishop. He then turned around and left the place.
When he walked past Rachel, he held her hand naturally then exited the place.
Bishop held the money and walked into the bedroom area of the backyard with a smile on his face.
After leaving the ancestral hall, Rachel had many questions to ask Ewan while walking back to their room.
But she didn’t want to ruin the ambience.
Rachel could feel that Ewan was different today. He was especially gentle.
What happened to him?
When they arrived at the main entrance of the South Garden, Rachel couldn’t help but stopped and pulled her hand out of Ewan’s.
Ewan turned around and frowned, “What’s going on?”
“Ewan, what did you tell Bishop?”